Ambient Art and Sound

Ambience, or the ability for art or sound to be ambient, has to do with its ability to blend in with the surrounding environment; to be unobtrusive.

The first to explore this notion within art was Brian Eno, with his "Music for Airports"from 1978. More recently, Jeremy Blake became known for his surreal "digital paintings," which employed slow, relaxed transitions between images and low-tempo ambient music.

In a short read by Benjamin Weil (Ambient Art and Our Changing Relationship to the Art Idea), it is pointed out that, perhaps, Ambient artists got their original inspiration from Minimalists, such as Dan Flavin and Carl Andre, the latter of which are prominent for their installations of (somewhat) interactive pieces where, as Oscar Wilde phrased, "life imitates art."

Brian Eno's Music for Airports album "creates a sonic atmosphere that pervades the architectural environment, blending in, becoming part of that space and that moment." (Weil) The music does not try to express itself, but rather stay in the background, unintrusive yet ever present.

After much personal debate over Jeremy Blake my concensus on his work is that, though it is calming, relaxing, and can blend in, it is not ambient soely for the fact that it can draw you in, and make you sit and devote time to experiencing the entire piece. It isn't something one can glance at and walk away fulfilled, much less just meander with it playing in the background.